Perry native goes from 'Last Comic Standing' to one 'Stand Up Mother'

Tammy Pescatelli has said she is supplied her stand-up material by simply getting up in the morning. Now television audiences will get a bigger glimpse into the family life that has long provided the comedienne's inspiration.

Pescatelli, a Perry native, will debut her reality series "A Stand Up Mother" at 10 Tuesday night on the WEtv network. Described as a "docu-series" by the network, it follows Pescatelli as she juggles her career as a traveling stand-up comic and wife and mother.

The fact she is a professional performer might make the show a little different from the typical family reality series.

"It's different because I have a talent," said Pescatelli, who has been doing comedy professionally for 16 years. "I'm not Kate Gosselin. I'm not interesting to people just because of my uterus."

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Pescatelli became well-known as a finalist on the second season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" in 2004. She recently won "Comedy Central's 2010 Stand-Up Showdown" and also has a 30-minute special on the network. She has made numerous appearances on TV talk shows and comedy showcases.

"A Stand Up Mother" documents her life in the small town of Meadville, Pa., where she moved from Hollywood with her husband, Luca, and is raising a child -- also Luca -- who is almost 3. Now most of her family also lives there, and her in-laws are a mere six-hour drive away.

The project got legs when co-creator Carla Kaufman-Sloan heard about Pescatelli's move from Hollywood to Meadville. Kaufman-Sloan, an Emmy-winning producer, had married and moved from Hollywood, too.

"She was having a parallel life to mine, except on the other side of the camera," Pescatelli said. "She found me, and we shot a 'sizzle' reel -- nobody does pilots anymore; they're too expensive. It took a year-and-half to film."

WEtv watched the reel and was on board, and Pescatelli shot six hour-long episodes, which took about six weeks to complete. As you might expect, many of her family members make appearances on the show.

Lou Belknap, a stylist at Ladies and Gentleman Salon & Spa in Mentor, was Pescatelli's stylist for the show. His duties primarily involved preparing the comedienne/mom for her confessional-type interviews, and he has a few on-screen moments, too.

He has known the family for years, but Belknap got to know the source of Pescatelli's inspiration -- that large Italian family -- a little more during the shooting.

"It was an awesome experience" Belknap said. "It was fascinating, and her extended family, Luca's family, are all amazing people. Her mom and dad, her brother -- they're all very nice people, and Tammy's just a class act all the way around."

Being closer to family while raising a child was the support system Pescatelli wanted, and Meadville wasn't chosen at random. Her mother was born there, and her brother coaches football in town. Pescatelli's great uncle was once mayor of the place, which is a little larger than Perry, she said.

"Well you know where everybody lives, everybody has yards and football is important," Pescatelli said. "But it's maybe more like a Painesville or a Madison. There's stores and things like that."

Though she's used to it, Pescatelli said it was a little strange being on camera with family members.

She also went to great lengths to ensure that it wasn't too weird an experience for her toddler, consulting a child-development specialist and making sure Luca knew everybody who might come into the home.

As an executive producer, Pescatelli also was more involved in post-production work than she's ever been, and with editing responsibilities and a writer-producer credit, she admitted she felt a little added pressure for the show to be funny.

"But what's the worst that could happen?" she said. "I end up with a great six hours of home movies."